


To Take A Step...

by MissRomanceJunkie



Series: Any Given Moment [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Like WAY Pre-Slash, M/M, Multi, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Pre-James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Pre-Slash, Pre-Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Prequel, Tony Stark Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 06:50:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7158167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissRomanceJunkie/pseuds/MissRomanceJunkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>His parents’ deaths weren’t Barnes’ fault. Tony knew that. Had known it then but rage had filled him so thoroughly that nothing resembling reason was ever going to make it through.</i>
</p>
<p>After the events of CA:CW, Tony returns to the tower to regroup and recuperate in his own, unique way.</p>
<p>He also comes to a decision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Take A Step...

**Author's Note:**

> This a prequel to a Post-Civil War fic I’m in the process of writing. The end game for that fic will be Tony/Bucky/Steve but this prequel/prologue piece stands alone as a hopeful one-shot too.
> 
> The title is a play on “to be or not to be” and is inspired by the quote:  
>  _In any given moment we have two options:_  
>  _To step forward into growth or to step back into safety._  
>  _~ Abraham Maslow_
> 
> Rating is for language.
> 
> Enjoy! :)

Tony was fine. He’d put the phone in a drawer and hadn’t spared it a second thought.

No really, he was fine.

Oh who the Hell was he kidding? He’d thought about using that phone dozens of times in the past few days but what could he say? He was still furious with Steve, how dare he keep something like that from him. It was the ultimate slap in the face. Not only had he chosen Barnes’ friendship over his own with Tony, he’d buried the truth about a man who used to be his friend, who’d spent years and millions of dollars searching for Captain America’s remains, right up until the day he died and beyond. He’d left specific instructions that those searches never stop as long as the money was there, which, let’s face it, was never going to be a problem at SI.

Tony wasn’t fine. He was hurting. Steve had hurt him and Tony hadn’t seen it coming. Barnes had hurt him but… No. No, he wasn’t doing this, couldn’t deal with this right now.

So Tony moved back into the tower, Rhodey and Vision in tow. They were all that was left of the mighty Avengers now.

He spent his first month back avoiding as many meetings as possible, while making sure to attend every one of the Stark Industries ones, to make sure no-one came knocking, worrying about his well-being or productivity or whatever. He helped Rhodey with his recovery after building him some state-of-the-art leg braces, he had business lunches with Pepper and he hung out in the penthouse with Happy once a week. He only saw Vision once that month.

The rest of the time he tinkered. On the Suit, on Avengers projects he’d already had going and would now go unused. He upgraded Friday, his baby AI growing up by the day. All the while though, a shield watched him from the corner of the room, scratches still exposing the silver beneath the red, white and blue.

A phone still sat in an unused drawer, having never been turned on.

* * *

 

A week later, after a three day inventing binge, he realised he’d run out of open projects and had been mapping out plans for a bionic arm for some time.

He scanned over his caffeine driven holographic scribbles. Huh, not bad. Of course looking at the schematics led to thinking of the man they were created for.

Tony sighed, walked over to the sofa and collapsed back onto it, quickly pulling his legs up and turning to stretch out fully. The bots were quiet, as they had been since Tony came back, having not stayed at the compound long enough to transport the gang over there. He knew they missed Steve, missed his visits down to the workshop to play with them, sometimes he even drew them and Tony would have to put up with their proud beeping for hours.

Tony missed it too but Steve was not the super soldier he was thinking about right now.

His parents’ deaths weren’t Barnes’ fault. Tony knew that. Had known it then but rage had filled him so thoroughly that nothing resembling reason was ever going to make it through. He’d seen the files, gone through them all after receiving that damned phone from Cap, wanting to refuel his hatred but finding only regret on his own part and anger on Barnes’ behalf. God the chair alone…

HYDRA’s methods to create the Winter Soldier were beyond barbaric and after everything James Buchanan Barnes had been through, Tony was surprised there was even a sliver of Bucky left for Steve to reach.

He stared at the ceiling and thought hard about it, about what it must have been like to wake up after that, to realise how much pain he’d caused, how much death was on his hands, if only literally, because as he thought about it, it just kept sinking further into his mind. Bucky Barnes was an innocent man. No. He was a hero, a prisoner of war that survived Hell only to be plagued with the remains of some behavioural programming that could revert him to that alternate state at any moment, with just a few, innocuous words.

Tony was going to build that arm.

More than that, he was going to help James Barnes, maybe even repair his team in the process if that was possible.

Steve, well. He’d cross that bridge when he ran head first into it and with any luck, the impact would knock him out and he’d get to wait a bit longer.

“FRIDAY, open up a new project, call it ‘Getting The Band Back Together’.”

With FRIDAY’s help he started making a list of lawyers and politicians, of the bendable laws in the accords and the ones he was going to have to break and remake. Like he’d told Steve in the beginning, it was easier to work from the inside.

After a few days he had a plan, a way to earn back some of the trust he’d lost while keeping everyone else happy and more importantly, protected. Looking over it all for holes and soft spots he realised something pretty important.

This was going to take a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it enough to let me know, I love kudos and comments!
> 
> I was about halfway through writing the main fic when I realised I wanted to expand upon a couple of things that wouldn’t quite fit in anywhere, and so a prequel was born.


End file.
